MTA's longest-serving motorman sidelined after stroke, family says

Leon George, the longest serving MTA train operator in New York City as of September 2018, suffered a stroke while on the job. George, 77, has been a train operator since June 28, 1971. (Trina Hayes)

The MTA’s longest-serving motorman is no longer spending his days riding the rails — but it’s not because of retirement after spending 47 years on trains.

Leon George — “Sonny” to his family — suffered a stroke Monday in Brooklyn on his way to work, family members told the Daily News. George, 77, is in a coma, but stable, at Interfaith Hospital after a colleague had found him on the ground, unresponsive, according to a family member.

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George, 77, is described as a man deeply in touch with his family and faith, gregarious with a contagious smile, and with a love of transportation and the people who take it that kept him working long after he could have retired.

“That was his life,” Barbara Campbell, his first cousin, said. “He said, ‘If I retire, what would I do?’ He said, ‘This is what I love.’”

Her son, Stephen Campbell, a fellow transit worker, said George took pride in helping the riding public move through New York.

“He was fascinated by the different types of people he would meet,” he said.

Leon George is pictured with fellow train operator, Trina Hayes, in an undated photo. (Trina Hayes)

George grew up in Savannah, Ga., before coming up to New York. He joined the MTA in June 1971, first as a conductor before moving up to train operator in March 1973.

“When I first started as a conductor, just in the middle there, you can't see nothing in front,” George told Metro newspaper in 2014. “I always wanted to be the go-go guy who moves the train.”

At the front of the train is where he stayed over the decades, refusing promotions or cushier gigs, like switching trains in the yards, where he could avoid dealing with riders, according to fellow train operator, Trina Hayes.

In fact, George has been running trains on the subway’s two longest lines — the A and F lines.

“Those are the longest trips in the system and everybody used to ask him, ‘Why don’t you take a switching job?” Hayes said. “He’s like, ‘Man, that’s what I do. That’s what I love.’”

She noted George’s commitment to his fellow workers as well. He trained Hayes as a train operator in 1999.

“He was the type of co-worker who helps you with everything,” she said.

George outlasted his own family members who worked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, such as his cousin Barbara Campbell, a retired station agent.